Community & the Design Process: UX – Designing for the Community

User Experience (UX) Design has a strong overlap with social design. That said, social design has its own skillset that requires an incredible amount of innovation and an understanding of what games mean to gamers. While there are many incredible social designers, they aren’t necessarily all UX designers and vice versa. Still, social designers have a lot to contribute to the field, especially with the amount of user testing they do.
“We do need to really understand how people work and how our audience works,” explains Jami Lukins. “We can be good predictors about how we can influence player behavior towards things that we think will create a sense of community, create camaraderie, create positivity.”
Indeed, the social aspect of gaming underpins a lot of gaming culture in general. It brings people together around shared experiences, teamwork, and community. Part of social design is about creating spaces for people to fully express themselves using game elements they can form connections around.
Lukins goes on to explain how this happens:
“If you let people be themselves and express who they are, that somehow brings people together. I can look over there and see, oh, man, they got that piece of gear. I know they really love that particular activity in the game. I also really love that activity in the game, but I got this version instead of that version.”
Those kinds of interactions can create instant connections between strangers, all in an environment that encourages sociability. The trick, Lukins reveals, is to build these interactions around consistent themes, language, and iconography.
“It gives people a common language to be able to talk about the game and have playful competitions over the game.”
Social design is about giving people shared interests to gather around and appreciate. At its core, it helps people find a common flag to play the game under.